They're back!

Samantha and Michael rolled into Philadelphia shortly before 7pm on Saturday evening, following an eventful drive back from North Carolina. Michael hit a ton of traffic near Washington DC, and then very unfortunately, hit a deer once traffic started moving again. Michael emerged unscathed, and the car only slightly scathed. The poor deer was fully scathed, and moved onto deer heaven- hopefully, frolicking with Bambi's mother. Then, just outside of the Pennsylvania border, two women drove into a toll booth (they were reportedly not injured), so Michael found himself stopped again while they cleared the accident. By the time I got his fourth phone call, I told him to take his time and just get home safely! His original estimated arrival had been 2pm, but 7pm and in one piece was fine by me.

Lest M and I spend too much time together, I headed to Brick, NJ on Sunday morning to attend a baby shower thrown by Tonia, for one of her closest friends who is due next month. The shower was really nice - Tonia had decorated and planned for everything! They had a really cute clothesline (well, three actually) where they pinned baby clothes to the line. It was very festive, and a really clever way to show off the gifts. The shower was held at M's mom's house so the bonus was that I got to see Mom and Jon for a quick minute.

I slept over at Tonia's house, and we (along with Justin and his mom and sis) walked two (out of five) of their Pit Bulls to the public beach for a gorgeous summer evening walk in the sand. The dogs played in the water, and we enjoyed a lovely summer sky. Afterwards, we returned to the house to play "Wii" - Nintendo's new interactive video system. It was a blast, and not your typical sit on your bum and push buttons game! I warned M that we made need to budget for a new gaming system...only 86 shopping days left until my birthday.

Back in Philly, M, Samantha, and Odin acclimated to being home together. I joined them early Monday morning where we enjoyed a nice walk in some spectacular summer weather (72 and sunny) and then M and I saw Pixar's "Ratatouille" which was delightful. M is home for the rest of the week, and then heads out on Saturday to Maine for work at the Bates Dance Festival. Let's hope for smoother travels this time.

News from my family - mom is safely in Beijing and is enjoying both the work and the sightseeing she is doing there. No reports of jetlag yet. My brother, Troy, had an unfortunate fall on Saturday evening. No spinal or nerve damage found, and reports are good for a full recovery, but he is still in a lot of pain. You can get his inside account of the fall, ER visit and initial recovery on his blog. We hope you heal quickly!